Skaters Jump In as Foreclosures Drain the Pool

New York Times ^ | December 28, 2008 | Jesse McKinley

[Lorianne]

We have more pools than we know what to do with,” said Mr. Peacock, who lives in Fresno, the Central Valley city where thousands of homes, many with pools behind them, are in foreclosure. “I can’t even keep track of them all anymore.”

Across the nation, the ultimate symbol of suburban success has become one more reminder of the economic meltdown, with builders going under, pools going to seed and skaters finding a surplus of deserted pools in which to perfect their acrobatic aerials.

In these boom times for skaters, Mr. Peacock travels with a gas-powered pump, five-gallon buckets, shovels and a push broom, risking trespassing charges in the pursuit of emptying forlorn pools and turning them into de facto skate parks.

“We can just hit them back to back,” said Mr. Peacock, who preferred to give his skateboarding name because of the illegality of his activities.

Skaters are coming to places like Fresno from as far as Germany and Australia. Mr. Peacock said his floor and couch were covered by sleeping bags of visiting skateboarders each weekend.

Some skateboarders use realty tracking sites like realquest.com and realtor.com to find foreclosed houses with pools, while others trawl through satellite images from Google Earth. On the Web site skateandannoy.com, where skaters trade tips about how to find and drain abandoned pools, one poster wrote about the current economic malaise. “God bless Greenspan,” the post read, “patron saint of pool skatin’.”

[Dick Holmes]

The originals

[quantim]

It’s better than doing drugs or alcohol. I doubt that you can skateboard effectively while stoned or drunk.

Who needs drugs when you lack brains?

[38special]

Skateboarding is not a crime!

[6SJ7]

Good point. Every February it rains in California, bringing down lava-like torrents of mud from the previous year's October fires. This time, all those empty pools are going to float like little Noah's Arks.

Verily I say unto thee: gather ye together two lawyers, two gangbangers, two purse dogs, two liberal professors, a pool boy and a Valley girl. Gather ye in a pool forthwith, and await the great rains; then go ye forth in March to repopulate California.

Bwaaa!

[Hammerhead]

Right on man.

Alva!

[Hammerhead]

BBB my man!!!

Keeping S&Bs in line I hope!!!!

[MediaMole]

They should start a business cleaning and emptying abandoned pools in foreclosed houses. It helps keep down the mosquito population.

Clean out the pool in exchange for a few hours of skating, then on to the next house.

[MediaMole]

In ground pools? What would happen to them? Serious question.

[PAR35]

Get enough water pressure under them, and they'll start to float. That'll tear up the plumbing, perhaps cause cracking. Then when the soil dries out, they'll drop back down, but probably out of alignment.

At some point, the only thing worth reusing is going to be the hole.

[PAR35]

Here’s a link:

Draining a Swimming Pool May be a Bad Idea
http://swimming.about.com/od/poolandspamaintenance/qt/drainswimpool.htm

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

The mosquito abatement teams must love these guys. Saves them the trouble of draining pools in foreclosed housing.

[KarinG1]

Mr. Peacock, who preferred to give his skateboarding name because of the illegality of his activities.

So the NYT knows who is committing crimes but withholds the criminal's name. No surprise there. At least it isn't likely to result in the death of Americans. That is a definite improvement over their usual behavior.

[MinuteGal]

I saw a pool here in Florida which was left drained by unthinking, absentee owners. It rose up like a boat above ground level and then listed to one side.

Simply put, there's always underground movement and water pressures underneath pools. The weight of the water in a filled pool obviates this problem.

Leni

[Sender]

I am surprised at the vitriol and misinformation on this thread. I myself grew up pirating pools when possible, and building magnificent wooden halfpipes when necessary. Yes, I was a skater, and I turned out to be a fine conservative citizen of FR.

I still have a longboard, a Rayne Heartless with ABEC-11 Flywheels. And if you flame me, I'll borrow my son's pool board, come and drain your pool and thrash it.

God bless smooth, gunite-coated America.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

The New York Times was once a major newspaper, as hard as that is to believe.

[MediaMole]

Thanks for the replies. I have never owned a pool and just figured it was a concrete-lined hole in the ground.